Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
Elysium
References
Images
Elysium region, in the northern hemisphere of Mars. The shield volcano Elysium Mons is visible in the upper left; just below it is another volcano, Albor Tholus. On the lower right, below the dark region, is the crater Ocrus Patera. This picture is a mosaic of images taken by the Viking spacecraft. topographic map of Mars
Britannica AI Icon

Elysium

region, Mars
Written by
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of  Encyclopædia Britannica, and create and manage the relationships between them.
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last updated

Quick Summary

Elysium region, in the northern hemisphere of Mars. The shield volcano Elysium Mons is visible in the upper left; just below it is another volcano, Albor Tholus. On the lower right, below the dark region, is the crater Ocrus Patera. This picture is a mosaic of images taken by the Viking spacecraft.
Elysium region, in the northern hemisphere of Mars. The shield volcano Elysium Mons is visible in the upper left; just below it is another volcano, Albor Tholus. On the lower right, below the dark region, is the crater Ocrus Patera. This picture is a mosaic of images taken by the Viking spacecraft.

Elysium is a volcanic rise on Mars, located in the northern region of the planet. It is smaller than the Tharsis rise, measuring 2,000 km across and 6 km high. Elysium is also home to several volcanoes. The Martian surface is characterized by significant relief, with the lowest point in the Hellas impact basin and the highest at the summit of Olympus Mons. There is a striking contrast between the southern hemisphere, which is heavily cratered, and the northern hemisphere, which is low-lying and sparsely cratered. This dichotomy is believed to have formed from a massive asteroid collision early in Mars' history.12

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
2 Britannica Sources
  1. Mars - Tharsis and Elysium
  2. Mars - Sparsely cratered plains

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.